Processing walkthrough of M16, The Eagle Nebula

[@JoesAstrophoto]

Love the tutorial and the final image Logan! M16 is such an iconic image for astrophotogragphy

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks Joe. I'd imaged it before with the SCT and the Redcat so thought I'd go half way and have a go with the Esprit.

[@jasonbarnes3288]

Fantastic work Logan! I plan on shooting this if the New Mexico monsoons let up! Clear skies and keep the great content going!

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks very much Jason. I think we might be experiencing similar "monsoon" weather here at present (but down here it's just called "oh crap it's still raining!" :) Hope you get some clear skies soon.

[@RussellsAstrophotography]

Fantastic video Logan. I wish I watched this a few weeks ago when I was processing my Eagle Nebula data...I found it a very tricky target to process. Love the colours in your image mate, fantastic work.

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks Russell, much appreciated. M16 is kind of like the ulrimate target within a target - there is the Eagle as a whole and then at the heart, the so called Pillars of Creation so lots of options on this one when it comes to fov.

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Stunning image there Logan loved the video walkthrough to great work.

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks very much. I was lucky to get 10 hrs on this given the weather at present.

[@FAstroHD]

Thanks mate that was a very useful video, I have some data of M16 and will get some more when I can, I will definitively follow your guide. Clear skies!

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks for that, I'm glad you found it useful. I often find it useful tp watch other people's techniques and take bits and pieces from each to add to my work flow.

[@avt_astro206]

Nice Process Of M16. I have This Target on my Summer List!

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks Avanteesh. It's a nice bright target which helps. look forward to seeing your image when you get to it.

[@olly7248]

Great tutorial, thanks for doing this 👍🏻

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks Olly. Hopefully it's of some use. Clear skies.

[@SimonsAstro]

Great video and tutorial run through on your editing process! Very interesting, I didn’t know you could do green mask minus yellow mask in pixelmath! Fantastic final image Logan, the Eagle nebula is on my to do list 👍 Clear skies!

[@LogansAstro]

Sorry Simon, I missed seeing your comment, hence the very very late response. I wish the mask making was a little more flexible like in photoshop to make isolating areas of an image easier rather than having to add and subtract masks from each other and clone stamp out bits we don't want.

[@Aero19612]

Very nicely done, Logan! I just finished collecting 14 hours (11 hours SHO + 3 hours RGB) on M 16 and will be comparing my final image to yours when I get a chance to process the data. We were using about the same focal length, though I suspect my M 16 is much closer to the horizon that your view. I'm already preparing myself to be disappointed in my results compared with yours. Thanks a lot!

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks James. Looking forward to seeing your version. I wish I had done what you have done and collected some RGB to use for stars but at the time, the blue Antlia filter had a fault producing lines and giving the stars little wings where the lines were so I couldn't. However, Antlia have given me a replacement blue filter now which is great.

[@OlliesSpace]

Hey Logan, I thought this was a really good walkthrough. It's always a good reminder for me of how to use those tools like Local Hist Eq and MLT. I also liked the trick of subtracting the two masks, sometimes it's about thinking laterally about problem solving. Also liked your trick in Photoshop to boost those stars using a mask. Super looking image Logan 👏

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks Ollie. I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing LHE twice (or once with higher settings) as I did for this image but in this case but it seemed to work ok I thought. Back before we had StarXterminator and the now more useful Starnet2, I was constantly combining or subtracting masks, especially range masks with star masks etc.

[@DSOImager]

Too much green?!?! Never! 🤣 I really enjoyed watching your workflow. I picked up a few things. For some reason LocalHistogramEqualization has never made it into my workflow (I blame muscle memory), I really need to change that. I also like how you handled the stars. Final image came out great! I'm currently using M16 as a parking/moon target with my 115. CS!

[@LogansAstro]

haha I thought about you when I was saying that. I did want to keep more green in it but instead of blending in nicely with the surroundings, it was a bit too well defined in this particular edit so I backed it off just a tad. I was actually also imaging the Pillars with the SCT at the same time but an endless run of rolling lows with lots of rain has brought that to a halt, I think for quite some time. CS

[@DSOImager]

@@LogansAstro Pillars would make a great a target for the SCT. Plenty of time for it.

[@Lorenz-Bruchtal]

I heard that this blue illumination could be caused by a Super/Hyper Nova behind the nebula which ignates star creation within. Therefore the name Pillars of Creation for a certain part of this Nebula

[@LogansChristmasLights]

That's interesting, I didn't know that. But your comment got me searching the internet and to my surprise I found another article saying in 2007, the Spitzer Space telescope picked up supernova blast wave heading for the Pillars of Creation and they believe this most likely destroyed the pillars about 6000 years ago but we will not see their destruction for another 1000 years. So at least we have another 1000yrs to image them 😁

[@SimonsAstro]

Great video and tutorial run through on your editing process! Very interesting, I didn’t know you could do green mask minus yellow mask in pixelmath! Fantastic final image Logan, the Eagle nebula is on my to do list 👍 Clear skies!

[@LogansAstro]

Thanks Simon. The nice thing about M16 is that is is nice and bright and so quite forgiving when it comes to processing. By the way, I've nearly finished my Toblerone :)

[@SimonsAstro]

@@LogansAstro I’m setting up now , I’ve got a clear sky All night! I looked at the Eagle nebula, but it doesn’t get above 24 degrees and at midnight it’s getting lower, so am choosing a different target! I brought back 2 Toblerone’s, they’ve both gone🤣

[@LogansAstro]

@@SimonsAstro Two gone already! You must be more Toblerone fit than me :) Enjoy the clear night tonight.